Sakura twirled some of her hair in front of her mirror. It was so long. She didn't like it. She hated long hair. It always got in the way of everything. But...Sasuke liked it. That's what Ami had said back in their Academy class, anyway. Though Sakura really doubted it, she was desperate. She would do ANYTHING to win Sasuke's favor. Why?

Because, Sakura had nothing but her looks going for her. She was from a nameless civilian family, she wasn't rich, and she wasn't a talented ninja. Though she would never admit it, she had only barely made the spot of top kunoichi in class. Really, it should have been Ino that had gotten that honor. Ino had a natural talent that Sakura didn't. Sakura pulled many all-nighters to understand everything that was taught. Nevermind the bags under her eyes, that could be covered with some foundation.

Sakura also wouldn't admit how disgusted with herself she was that she couldn't win taijutsu fight with anyone, except maybe Naruto, for her life. True, the Academy's style was not exactly the best and many students learned from their clan, but then there were the civilian kids in her class that had been better than her at taijutsu. They had no clan to teach them better techniques. She could never understand how they advanced so much. Until she found out that their parents had got them personal tutors to work with. That had truly ticked Sakura off. It was also then that she realized that every other civilian kid, other than Naruto (though she didn't know if he counted, for he was an orphan and she acknowledged the fact that many orphans were the result of shinobi missions gone wrong), was filthy rich. They could afford tutors. When Sakura had personally looked into the whole tutor thing, she had balked at how much even the cheapest tutor cost.

So, here Sakura was. She had barely made the spot of top kunoichi, barely passed the Genin Exam (she had pulled two all-nighters for that), and barely passed the Genin Test.

She still regretted the fact that she did little more than get caught in a genjutsu and follow Sasuke's lead in giving Naruto some food.

For a second, as Sakura stared at the mirror, she lost control. She grabbed a kunai that she kept on a dresser and put it to her hair, about to chop it all off. Then, she stopped. What was she doing? She had already messed with her hair enough, it would take forever to get it back to the way it was. The way Sasuke supposedly liked it. Before she could question herself as to why she did this for Sasuke, she grabbed her hairbrush and started brushing her hair.

She didn't want to think about how her obsession with Sasuke was probably just a shallow crush she had had. She didn't want to think about how she'd long ago outgrown that crush. She didn't want to think about how she actually kind of hated Sasuke, or at least what he had become.

Because then she would have to acknowledge that she entered the Academy for no reason. Sasuke had always been her dream and goal, nothing more, nothing less. If she didn't like Sasuke...then everything had been for nothing. Those sleepless nights, those hours slaving away at trying to get enough chakra to mold, those cuts, those scrapes, those broken bones. She had taken it all looking directly at her one goal: Sasuke Uchiha.

Sakura refused to admit that, for a long time now, ever since Sasuke's sudden change of behaviour after the Uchiha Massacre, she had been looking at nothing but open air. She had been looking at a hope, a dream, a goal, that had long since vanished. That didn't exist.

Sakura glanced at her clock, then winced. Oh. She was three hours late. She had been monologing to herself the whole time.

Sighing, she put down her hairbrush, gathered her kunai and shuriken, smoothed out her dress, and straightened her headband. She should really get going. Nevermind breakfast, Sasuke liked skinny girls anyway. For a second, Sakura's bottom lip trembled before she suddenly smiled a small, sad smile.

Of course he did.